For those who landed here via business card link, more information about me is available on this page.
This article outlines my journey to acquire and use the most energy efficient vehicles available and within our budget. The index to the right allows you to skip to sections of interest. Thanks for reading and posting feedback!
Early interest in Electric Alternatives
Growing up on a farm in Maryland I really enjoyed operating contraptions that extended what I could do. First, bicycles, then the push mower, then "garden tractors", followed by the big farm tractors, and later motorcycles.
Even better than BugE - my ELF!
More so than trucks and cars, these devices were personal extensions and amplified what I could do, or extended the distance I could travel, or increased the amount of weight I could carry or move. I also learned that in order to have them available for use you have to learn how to maintain these contraptions or spend a lot of time traveling to and from a repair shop - if you can find one.
In the late 1970s clean operating, battery powered electric versions of each of the contraptions mentioned above became available. They were very expensive compared to gasoline or diesel fueled versions. In addition to extending my capabilities the electric versions could do so without (directly) using fossil fuels. Later on I also tied in an interest in solar energy to charge the batteries for the electric contraptions. In this wiki page, I'm going to focus on how I migrated toward electric contraptions sometimes using small gas engine powered contraptions as a temporary placeholder toward a long term goal to:
Replace all gasoline powered devices that I use with more efficient, solar-powered electric equivalents, especially Personal Electric Vehicles (PEV) wherever possible instead of gasoline powered automobiles! Examples include the Organic Transit ELF shown in the photo above or the BugE shown below.
Early Electric Contraptions
One of my earliest science projects was hooking up a D cell battery to an electric motor and a switch. Turn on the switch and the fan attached to the motor ran at modest speed. I remember in science class doing this and taking the completed wood board to shop class, with permission, so I could work on adding a second, then third, battery pack to the first and create a much more significant airflow from the fan. Sure enough, 4 D cells made this a blower that could cool the insides of a Personal Computer (PC) quite nicely. Except that at the time there were no PCs! This led to many future experiences with electricity and motors, including a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering which focused on power electronics for electric vehicle drives. But there were a lot of experiences with motorized contraptions before then.
Farm & Lawn Engines
As a school age kid, whenever my Dad would take me to the Farmers Cooperative store to get grain for the cows I would come along, especially if he was going to drop by the International Harvester (IH) dealer for some parts for the tractors. Back then the competition seemed fierce among farm equipment vendors and you were either an IH farm, a John Deere farm, a Case/New Holland farm or had "foreign" equipment from Europe, there were no Japanese, Korean, or Chinese import tractors at the time! Each had finely tuned gas or diesel engine tractors that would last decades, and many lasted MUCH longer.
One thing I really disliked then and now which was a precursor to this EV journey: two stroke gasoline engines where you mix oil with the gas. There is always some bit of an oil plume or oil drip and signature odor out the exhaust even if they were just sitting in the garage or shed. Two stroke engines were the standard lawn mower engine of the day, popular on "dirt bike" motorcycles, and were available as kits to put on bicycles. Well before I understood this was an awful thing to do to our air, I thought these two stroke engines were a real waste of oil, smelly, and just unpleasant to deal with. Why couldn't someone make a nice efficient, affordable 4 stroke engine comparable with the big farm tractor engines, or a car or truck of the day, all with 4 stroke engines.
Diagram of a Hybrid Diesel Electric Train Engine
Better yet back to that clean, or at least cleaner, electric power: what about motors on tractors like those electric motors that powered the electric locomotives that we saw whenever we went to Union Station in Washington DC, or that diesel-electric locomotive that rode by the farm twice a day during the week hauling freight from Pennsylvania through to DC? The diagram to the left shows the power plant in those original "hybrid electric vehicles" before the term was in wide use to describe gas/electric combination power plants.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the equivalent efficient and clean small motors for mobile use were not electric, but were 4 stroke gas engines that were in contraptions at least twice as expensive as those with equivalent power two stroke engines. Clean, quiet 4 stroke engine lawn mowers, almost all made with Honda engines despised by my grandfather's generation all of whom seemed to be WW2 vets and refused to buy anything made in Japan. In addition the 4 stroke engines were out of reach of our family financially as well as politically.
In the late 1970s after much pleading, my Dad purchased a small John Deere "lawn tractor" when I was in my tween years that had a nice electric start 4 stroke engine and I became the primary user of that lawn tractor.
Two sided blade Weed Whacker
At this time we had moved away from the farm and were taking care of a University of Maryland Extension Center in Eastern Maryland. There were parts of the 20+ acres of yard area that we kept trim that weren't accessible with the lawn tractor, so it was either fire up the old two stroke lawn mower or use the huge scythe "weed whacker". There were no little gas or electric "weed whackers" so back then this was a manual job.
When I saw a small electric lawn mower at the farmers cooperative, I begged my dad to get one. Just one thing, you needed a very long extension cord to use it. Instead we "upgraded" to a bit better "weed whacker" -- the shorter wooden handle variety with a flat blade that cuts on both sides replaced the big scythe. Lesson learned; our family has only in the past few years upgraded to first a corded string trimmer, then a battery powered, electric string trimmer after using manual dual-edged weed whackers for decades!
During the years after high school, I had a small Ford Ranger import pickup truck to haul bikes and small motorcycles and as my long distance transportation. For daily commuting during my college years bicycles were far more usable on and around campus than any other vehicle. Bikes were also the most practical personal transport when I became a full time undergrad, later part time graduate student, then full time graduate student, then full time employee and part time grad student at 4 different universities. Bikes were the best way to get around campus and I can't remember a day after leaving the farm for college that I didn't have at least one working bicycle and one that was under rebuild and repair for someone!
For commuting when I moved off-campus about 10 miles and then to a job 5 miles further away there was no support for bikes with racks on buses as is so common today. After exploring many contraptions to add electric or gas motor power to mybicycles, I did what so many 20ish young men did, I bought a succession of motorcycles, all of them 4 stroke of course! From a 125cc to a 350cc then a 500cc water cooled, all 4 stroke Hondas.
When I rented a house in graduate school where I was responsible for the yard work, the owner had recently purchased an electric lawn mower which sat in a shed out back beside an ancient gas mower. I eagerly used this corded electric mower rather than fire up the ancient 2 stroke gas mower that sat stinking up the tool shed. I remember it was a "Murray" electric mower, probably from the Sears catalog store over in Radford, VA. After a few times out, I got the hang of mowing a pattern that started at the outlet and mowed outward in order to deal with the 75 feet of extension cord needed.
1980s GE Electric Van
It may not surprise you reading this, my graduate studies focused on Power Electronics, specifically researching designs for super efficient hybrid and all electric motor controls. Part of my research included testing and developing power electronics for motor controllers and caring for a donated GE Electric van much like the one pictured to the right. The GE van had an interior cargo area that was unfinished and covered with batteries, wires, and electronics as the lone drivable test vehicle in the Power Electronics program at the time. I dreamt of having my own electric vehicle someday; at the time though the mowers were my primary way of replacing a gas powered contraption with an electric one!
Fast forward another few years and while on assignment for IBM at the Connelly University in Ithaca NY where I met and later married my better half, who is a kindred spirit and fellow energy conscious Earth Week devotee. We actually bought and setup some solar panels, a battery bank, and DC to AC inverter
Block diagram of Solar Power System
which was the sole source of electricity in the garage and one circuit in the basement and backroom of our house. The solar electric system provided recharging power for the batteries in many contraptions, especially a Black and Decker M300 Battery Powered electric mower (circa 1986). This B&D mower was built tough, in fact we are still using this almost 30 year old mower (2013). There was a break in 2008 when construction guys working on the house threw out the safety key to the mower (along with a few other things that were NOT trash!) The mower had started to fade as the battery was no longer holding even 1/3 the charge it had in its prime. A new battery pack for the mower was over $100 and the safety key not available, so we went shopping for another battery powered electric mower in summer of 2008.
Surprisingly these battery powered electric mowers were hard to find locally in 2008 (still true in 2010). I expected these clean, simple mowers to proliferate during this time of oil price gouging and a resurgence in environmental awareness. There were some web sites available to order battery powered mowers on-line, but they are relatively expensive, rarely went on special discount sale, and shipping was a 20-25% premium on top of the mower's price. With very few demonstrator models available to see how quiet, clean, and efficient they are, no wonder few people buy them! In our area of NC only Home Depot carried them in store, and only one demo model per regional store.
B&D Battery Electric Mower
Somehow in each of the four regional stores I visited, the demo model was missing a key component, usually the battery charger.
At several stores clerks tried to tell me the charger was an optional extra expense and tried to sell me the corded electric mower instead! Every lawn and garden center had corded electric mowers, though they are very impractical for all but small yards!
So lawn and garden supply stores were NOT (still are not) featuring battery electric mowers as the energy saving, quieter, locally non-polluting replacement for gasoline powered mowers! We had to pay an extra $45 shipping because the Homelite 24V battery powered mower wasn't a "stocked item". The wait was worth it as the Homelite 24V mower is a heavy-duty and seemingly very durable mower! One mowing season went by flawlessly and I really enjoyed continuing a 20yr old tradition of not mowing our lawn with a gas powered mower! In the second year, the Homelite 24V did develop a flaw where the mower blade would only "start" moving when the battery was fully charged. After fruitless search for a local repair service, I took the mower apart only to find a simple adjustment to the motor commutator brushes fixed the problem. This is one reason electric mowers, especially battery powered electric mowers aren't very popular: when the motor breaks or there is a problem with the simple on board electrical connections finding a place to repair it is difficult!
Flash forward another 2 years (2010) and several models of battery powered electric mowers are now available among Sears, Lowes, and still Home Depot stores. At least Sears and Lowes now carry actual functioning models, again usually only one demonstrator per store requiring a special order. Others here in Central NC have bought the current Black & Decker mowers which now have removable battery packs, much like electric bicycles. A "special order' isn't as big a deal now as a few years ago, since if you find the same mower on a web site like Amazon that you like, the shipping is often included in the cost of the item! Ironically in 2012 the Homelite mower developed a problem which would cost more than the mower cost to repair and parts became available online for the old B&D mower. A $65 battery pack, some rewiring, and a $5 starter key put the now 27 year old B&D mower back in operation again!
For me, the years prior to the turn of the 21st century led to several experiences that built skills, tools, and the family and local support to afford to buy and actively use Personal Electric Vehicles (PEVs).
Stepping stones to PEVs
One other piece of background info: from the time I could remember until just a few years ago my father was welding farm implements such as wagons and even tractor frames back together. That is when duct tape or epoxy glue didn't hold whatever it was back together again! Dad helped me try my hand at getting some components welded and in junior high and high school shop class I practiced on farm wagons and other large equipment. Now, I can solder electrical components quite well, thank you, and machining small components on a lathe, drilling, and tapping are things I am very comfortable doing and believe I am competent. This comes in to play in a getting to that dream of a PEV. In the meantime, though I have built many a "Heathkit" type electrical or electronic contraption, the only "kit eBikes" I have entertained have been those designed with all the major components completed but sometimes requiring minor drilling or tapping alteration to fit one of my bikes but no fine brazing or welding.
Electric Bikes (eBikes)
Back in the 1970s and 1980s there were designs to marry motorcycle batteries with electric motors to power a bicycle. I remember sending off a few dollars for detailed construction designs only to realize that even though I was working in a medical equipment custom shop with access to lathes, milling machines, and other necessary equipment, my chances of creating a reliable ebike weren't good. Past experience in shop class and with my father's huge old electric welder weren't up to the task of fine welding & brazing work required to get a premium electric motor attached effectively to a bicycle frame. Most motors of the day had originally been designed for aircraft use or for golf carts, thus were pretty heavy for the 200-500W output required to effectively provide supplementary power for an electric bike.
More recently, circa 2001-2002, before both of my kids reached middle school and high school and had activities all the time, I did get serious about electric bicycles which many call "ebikes". During this time, I agonized over kits versus manufactured bicycles with integrated electric motors. In late 2001 Currie Cycles was having a blowout sale just prior to introducing their new 2002 models. Our family had just moved from the West Coast to Central NC and I felt some job security here so I purchased a 2001 Currie Folding bicycle, the eFolder model, and a short time later a 2001 Currie Mountain eBike at over 50% off from a California mail order bicycle dealer! These were still expensive bikes, at least for me, at about $475 and $550 respectively! Each had decent components, a fancy term for individual parts on the bikes like the shifters and wheels, etc. Both of these had excellent reviews at the time and especially the eFolder seemed perfect for commuting where part of the commute might be on an intercity bus.
Production ebikes
The Currie Cycle Company was founded by a former Aerospace executive who brought along many technical staff who saw promise in good quality and affordable ebikes. Initial sales were promising in California, Oregon, Washington State and Vancouver BC, but very weak elsewhere in the US and Canada and the company expanded as though sales would take off. The strong dollar and some parts problems with key components like the early motor and controls didn't help! Each of the ebikes I had purchased was a version of a Currie Cycles line being discontinued while major cost reductions were made in the product line to increase sales. Currie Cycles and other ebike companies struggled to stay alive after GW Bush was elected and states quickly dismantled "non-strategic" energy programs such as tax breaks for ebikes and other incentives that had cropped up at the end of the Clinton administration and had spurred ebike sales. Also the Currie eFolder was discontinued at the time in favor of a larger wheel folding ebike.
In return for my ever increasing need for space in our newly constructed garage at the time, I got rid of most of my old bikes and many parts from bikes and other hobbies and started bike/bus commuting to work from Chapel Hill to RTP, NC.
Currie eZip Folding ebike
The eFolder was OK for this, but the motor and batteries were just too heavy to render the bagged bike + backpack with laptop PC + batteries easily hauled onto an inter-city bus. Pretty soon, I got a small, light Dahon folding bike without battery and motor to do bus/bike commuting.
Ups and down with ebikes
I did get my better half interested in riding the eFolder while I would pull a kids bike trailer behind the Currie Mountain ebike with our younger daughter (then 5) and any stuff to haul to the nearby park which was a hilly back road trip of a few miles. The older daughter (then 10) would ride her (non-motorized) bike and beg for her own motor!
After about a year and a half each ebike developed a really maddening, and dangerous, problem: the ebikes sometimes wouldn't turn off when the thumb control was returned to "zero speed". Also one of the battery pack power switches wouldn't turn off either, so the battery pack switch was not serving as the essential emergency off switch. After a couple of rides where the ebikes turned into bucking broncos attempting to stop them, I made many calls to the company. This resulted in warranty replacement of a new motor for each ebike, but that didn't fix the problem. Further calls went unanswered as Currie Cycles was just barely surviving. What I didn't know then is that there had been a cost-cutting effort just before shipping out the last of the 2001 bikes. The cost cutting is obvious in a few areas such as the common steel seat mount on the Currie ebikes we own rather than the all aluminum alloy posts pictured in the ads. Less obvious is the electric thumb controller which is usually a very simple and reliable part and the last thing I suspected as a problem.
At the time there was no local help available to repair or tune these eBikes so we retired the Currie eFolder for a few years, and I reluctantly disconnected the battery pack from the nice Currie Mountain ebike and it became a standard 21 speed road bicycle for me to pull the kids trailer. Further details on our ebikes and their history is on another web page.
Back to 2010 and our eldest daughter, then 17, was clamoring for use of a car more often. With the economy still slowly recovering from the economic woes of 2008-2009, we are on one income since the school district went through a wave of cuts where my spouse's position was eliminated. Now we just can't see that any decent used car would be affordable and it would cut into the savings for the college funds. Not to mention the huge increase in insurance if we get a 3rd standard vehicle. Some ways around this:
Get back into ebikes and ebike based recumbents: fix the old ones and/or get a used one as sporadic good used ebike values are cropping up again
Find a Personal Electric Vehicle (PEV) at reasonable price that is NOT insured as a standard car. This means a 3 wheeled vehicle which are either licensed in NC as "motorcycles" or limited to 750w motors.
Giant LAFree Electric bike
I have really begun addressing #1 after we found out that even the most basic small EV, mainly those that are legally rated as Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEV), with a decent ride start at over $6000 used! For less than 1/7 of that price we can upgrade all the eBikes and get at least one more used one. In April 2010, I got a 3rd ebike when a local pawn shop owner offered a Giant LaFree Lite ebike for sale. The seller accepted less than 1/2 of the advertised price and with only another $100 worth of parts this $1000 list ebike is back on the road again. This 2005 year ebike NiMH battery pack has held up for the past 6 months. Replacement battery packs are over $450, but thankfully a Pacific NW firm has spare parts and sold me an empty Giant battery box so I can attach a new external battery pack to this and the other ebikes. To make an extra battery pack, I've obtained a Nilar NiMH battery pack sort of like a small Prius battery pack for ebikes.
W4CHL eBike Power Architecture
I designed a simple interface system for all these bikes which is depicted above. I intentionally purchased all with 24V motor and controllers, so the two rack mounted battery packs, both "SLA" lead-acid and NiMH, are interchangeable among all the eBikes. [PS - W4CHL is my FCC amateur radio callsign.] Unfortunately the NiMH battery from Nilar began leaking and ceased functioning in 2Q2013. Only in mid 2013 have affordable alternatives to "gel cell"/SLA batteries become available. A set of Lithium batteries, the LiFePO4 variety, built by Clean Republic in North Dakota are now in the same size as a 12v8ah SLA battery with a second set ordered through ebay when the Clean Republic turned to auctions for basic battery sales. These SLA replacement batteries are also encased in a bamboo container with built-in thermal cutoffs but no Battery Management System (BMS) found in much more expensive Lithium technology battery packs. I am testing the Bamboo LiFePO4 batteries in the older Currie ebikes with Kollmorgan replacement motors and the newly acquired Powabyke Shopper.
Hybrid Electric Car
Yes, our family owns a Prius, a 2002 model from the second year of production in the US! Our 2nd vehicle is now a hybrid Mercury Mariner. As noted above, a hybrid electric car had been a dream since grad school days when I worked on power electronics subsystems. One of the dreams come true for so many mechanical engineers in the 1980s was to marry a hybrid vehicle control system with small gas or diesel engines and an electric drive train. A
s noted above, this core design has been used successfully for almost a century in locomotives and large earth moving equipment. We bought the Prius in 2003, which is a step forward in energy efficiency and minimizing ecological harm from driving a car. Again, the thought of a third car, hybrid or not, still pushed us toward another alternative. Later, when researching replacement for our aging Toyota station wagon, we purchased a hybrid Mercury Mariner in early 2011. So both of our family cars are now hybrids.
Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEV)
The Neighborhood Electric Vehicle is attractive for many reasons. So far, every one I've seen, especially those for sale here in Central NC ride like very fancy golf carts. Some, like the Zenn LEV which I almost bought from a fellow in nearby Greensboro are production quality exterior, lights, and controls. But the road handling and braking give away their golf cart heritage and after Julie drove this one she agrees, this style of typical NEV on a golf cart chassis isn't suitable as a "second car".
First Dream PEV: BugE
BugE Personal Electric Vehicle
There are several Personal Electric Vehicle (PEV) designs that have proven stable, thus safer, and better equipped for inclement weather than a motorcycle or bicycle based PEV. There are many 3 wheeled "motorcycles" on the road, even some which are pretty comfortable for non-motorcyclists to drive. Most of these cost more than the Prius we bought in 2003! One notable exception is the BugE kit design that is technically licensed as a "motorcycle" here in NC, designed to go up to 45mph. This is an enclosed, 3 wheel, high powered electric scooter. This isn't derogatory, I like scooters. The BugE seems to be that practical electric scooter capable of becoming a commuting vehicle!
For now eBikes Rule!
As of this writing in 3Q2013, eBikes are the alternative PEV which I am riding, my daughters (mainly the younger one) are riding, and we demonstrate to others. Though we look forward to upgrading to another PEV which will allow me to commute the 20+ mile each way to work even in inclement weather. Then in early 2013 we found it!
Update 3Q2013
Our garage now has 4 26"/700c ebikes plus a folding 20" rim ebike as detailed here. Some have minor repairs or battery replacements required; 3 are currently ridden at least once a month; one is ridden at least a couple times a week! The PEV that we finally found is made in nearby Durham, NC. We have on order a 2013 model Organic Transit ELF
See the new wikispace we created and dedicate to the ELF and other Big Fairing Equipped Recumbent (BFER) velomobiles: http://bfer-velo.wikispaces.com
smart Fortwo Electric Drive charging in driveway
Update 1Q2014
After my Uncle Pete died in January 2014, his children hosted a wonderful celebration of his life. Pete had offered his children some "pocket money" when they came home and challenged them to "do something they wouldn't have done" with the extra cash. The family continued this tradition with extended family this year, and on the way back to NC from Marylan d, I used the pocket money to take an extra few stops pursuing the Electric smart car being advertised in Maryland (smart Fortwo ED is what Mercedes dealers call them). After some quick negotiations and calls back home, the local Maryland dealer agreed to ship one to NC where it would be fully supported by the local smart/Mercedes dealer!
Our "EDee" pictured, arrived a month prior to Earth Day 2014 and has been my primary around the Triangle vehicle since.
Update: Goal for Earth Day 2015 was met!
Have a PEV (or two) and production highway ready EV that are used often and are available for display and demonstration any day, not just Earth Day!
Goal for Earth Day 2016: ??
Related Links
MS Search for the ideal electric vehicles (this page)
Table of Contents
For those who landed here via business card link, more information about me is available on this page.
This article outlines my journey to acquire and use the most energy efficient vehicles available and within our budget. The index to the right allows you to skip to sections of interest. Thanks for reading and posting feedback!
Early interest in Electric Alternatives
Growing up on a farm in Maryland I really enjoyed operating contraptions that extended what I could do. First, bicycles, then the push mower, then "garden tractors", followed by the big farm tractors, and later motorcycles.In the late 1970s clean operating, battery powered electric versions of each of the contraptions mentioned above became available. They were very expensive compared to gasoline or diesel fueled versions. In addition to extending my capabilities the electric versions could do so without (directly) using fossil fuels. Later on I also tied in an interest in solar energy to charge the batteries for the electric contraptions. In this wiki page, I'm going to focus on how I migrated toward electric contraptions sometimes using small gas engine powered contraptions as a temporary placeholder toward a long term goal to:
Replace all gasoline powered devices that I use with more efficient, solar-powered electric equivalents, especially Personal Electric Vehicles (PEV) wherever possible instead of gasoline powered automobiles! Examples include the Organic Transit ELF shown in the photo above or the BugE shown below.
Early Electric Contraptions
One of my earliest science projects was hooking up a D cell battery to an electric motor and a switch. Turn on the switch and the fan attached to the motor ran at modest speed. I remember in science class doing this and taking the completed wood board to shop class, with permission, so I could work on adding a second, then third, battery pack to the first and create a much more significant airflow from the fan. Sure enough, 4 D cells made this a blower that could cool the insides of a Personal Computer (PC) quite nicely. Except that at the time there were no PCs! This led to many future experiences with electricity and motors, including a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering which focused on power electronics for electric vehicle drives. But there were a lot of experiences with motorized contraptions before then.Farm & Lawn Engines
As a school age kid, whenever my Dad would take me to the Farmers Cooperative store to get grain for the cows I would come along, especially if he was going to drop by the International Harvester (IH) dealer for some parts for the tractors. Back then the competition seemed fierce among farm equipment vendors and you were either an IH farm, a John Deere farm, a Case/New Holland farm or had "foreign" equipment from Europe, there were no Japanese, Korean, or Chinese import tractors at the time! Each had finely tuned gas or diesel engine tractors that would last decades, and many lasted MUCH longer.One thing I really disliked then and now which was a precursor to this EV journey: two stroke gasoline engines where you mix oil with the gas. There is always some bit of an oil plume or oil drip and signature odor out the exhaust even if they were just sitting in the garage or shed. Two stroke engines were the standard lawn mower engine of the day, popular on "dirt bike" motorcycles, and were available as kits to put on bicycles. Well before I understood this was an awful thing to do to our air, I thought these two stroke engines were a real waste of oil, smelly, and just unpleasant to deal with. Why couldn't someone make a nice efficient, affordable 4 stroke engine comparable with the big farm tractor engines, or a car or truck of the day, all with 4 stroke engines.
Better yet back to that clean, or at least cleaner, electric power: what about motors on tractors like those electric motors that powered the electric locomotives that we saw whenever we went to Union Station in Washington DC, or that diesel-electric locomotive that rode by the farm twice a day during the week hauling freight from Pennsylvania through to DC? The diagram to the left shows the power plant in those original "hybrid electric vehicles" before the term was in wide use to describe gas/electric combination power plants.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the equivalent efficient and clean small motors for mobile use were not electric, but were 4 stroke gas engines that were in contraptions at least twice as expensive as those with equivalent power two stroke engines. Clean, quiet 4 stroke engine lawn mowers, almost all made with Honda engines despised by my grandfather's generation all of whom seemed to be WW2 vets and refused to buy anything made in Japan. In addition the 4 stroke engines were out of reach of our family financially as well as politically.
In the late 1970s after much pleading, my Dad purchased a small John Deere "lawn tractor" when I was in my tween years that had a nice electric start 4 stroke engine and I became the primary user of that lawn tractor.
When I saw a small electric lawn mower at the farmers cooperative, I begged my dad to get one. Just one thing, you needed a very long extension cord to use it. Instead we "upgraded" to a bit better "weed whacker" -- the shorter wooden handle variety with a flat blade that cuts on both sides replaced the big scythe. Lesson learned; our family has only in the past few years upgraded to first a corded string trimmer, then a battery powered, electric string trimmer after using manual dual-edged weed whackers for decades!
Table of Contents
Colleges, Bikes, and Electric Mowers
During the years after high school, I had a small Ford Ranger import pickup truck to haul bikes and small motorcycles and as my long distance transportation. For daily commuting during my college years bicycles were far more usable on and around campus than any other vehicle. Bikes were also the most practical personal transport when I became a full time undergrad, later part time graduate student, then full time graduate student, then full time employee and part time grad student at 4 different universities. Bikes were the best way to get around campus and I can't remember a day after leaving the farm for college that I didn't have at least one working bicycle and one that was under rebuild and repair for someone!For commuting when I moved off-campus about 10 miles and then to a job 5 miles further away there was no support for bikes with racks on buses as is so common today. After exploring many contraptions to add electric or gas motor power to mybicycles, I did what so many 20ish young men did, I bought a succession of motorcycles, all of them 4 stroke of course! From a 125cc to a 350cc then a 500cc water cooled, all 4 stroke Hondas.
When I rented a house in graduate school where I was responsible for the yard work, the owner had recently purchased an electric lawn mower which sat in a shed out back beside an ancient gas mower. I eagerly used this corded electric mower rather than fire up the ancient 2 stroke gas mower that sat stinking up the tool shed. I remember it was a "Murray" electric mower, probably from the Sears catalog store over in Radford, VA. After a few times out, I got the hang of mowing a pattern that started at the outlet and mowed outward in order to deal with the 75 feet of extension cord needed.
It may not surprise you reading this, my graduate studies focused on Power Electronics, specifically researching designs for super efficient hybrid and all electric motor controls. Part of my research included testing and developing power electronics for motor controllers and caring for a donated GE Electric van much like the one pictured to the right. The GE van had an interior cargo area that was unfinished and covered with batteries, wires, and electronics as the lone drivable test vehicle in the Power Electronics program at the time. I dreamt of having my own electric vehicle someday; at the time though the mowers were my primary way of replacing a gas powered contraption with an electric one!
Fast forward another few years and while on assignment for IBM at the Connelly University in Ithaca NY where I met and later married my better half, who is a kindred spirit and fellow energy conscious Earth Week devotee. We actually bought and setup some solar panels, a battery bank, and DC to AC inverter
Surprisingly these battery powered electric mowers were hard to find locally in 2008 (still true in 2010). I expected these clean, simple mowers to proliferate during this time of oil price gouging and a resurgence in environmental awareness. There were some web sites available to order battery powered mowers on-line, but they are relatively expensive, rarely went on special discount sale, and shipping was a 20-25% premium on top of the mower's price. With very few demonstrator models available to see how quiet, clean, and efficient they are, no wonder few people buy them! In our area of NC only Home Depot carried them in store, and only one demo model per regional store.
At several stores clerks tried to tell me the charger was an optional extra expense and tried to sell me the corded electric mower instead! Every lawn and garden center had corded electric mowers, though they are very impractical for all but small yards!
So lawn and garden supply stores were NOT (still are not) featuring battery electric mowers as the energy saving, quieter, locally non-polluting replacement for gasoline powered mowers! We had to pay an extra $45 shipping because the Homelite 24V battery powered mower wasn't a "stocked item". The wait was worth it as the Homelite 24V mower is a heavy-duty and seemingly very durable mower! One mowing season went by flawlessly and I really enjoyed continuing a 20yr old tradition of not mowing our lawn with a gas powered mower! In the second year, the Homelite 24V did develop a flaw where the mower blade would only "start" moving when the battery was fully charged. After fruitless search for a local repair service, I took the mower apart only to find a simple adjustment to the motor commutator brushes fixed the problem. This is one reason electric mowers, especially battery powered electric mowers aren't very popular: when the motor breaks or there is a problem with the simple on board electrical connections finding a place to repair it is difficult!
Flash forward another 2 years (2010) and several models of battery powered electric mowers are now available among Sears, Lowes, and still Home Depot stores. At least Sears and Lowes now carry actual functioning models, again usually only one demonstrator per store requiring a special order. Others here in Central NC have bought the current Black & Decker mowers which now have removable battery packs, much like electric bicycles. A "special order' isn't as big a deal now as a few years ago, since if you find the same mower on a web site like Amazon that you like, the shipping is often included in the cost of the item! Ironically in 2012 the Homelite mower developed a problem which would cost more than the mower cost to repair and parts became available online for the old B&D mower. A $65 battery pack, some rewiring, and a $5 starter key put the now 27 year old B&D mower back in operation again!
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Personal Electric Vehicles (PEVs)
For me, the years prior to the turn of the 21st century led to several experiences that built skills, tools, and the family and local support to afford to buy and actively use Personal Electric Vehicles (PEVs).Stepping stones to PEVs
One other piece of background info: from the time I could remember until just a few years ago my father was welding farm implements such as wagons and even tractor frames back together. That is when duct tape or epoxy glue didn't hold whatever it was back together again! Dad helped me try my hand at getting some components welded and in junior high and high school shop class I practiced on farm wagons and other large equipment. Now, I can solder electrical components quite well, thank you, and machining small components on a lathe, drilling, and tapping are things I am very comfortable doing and believe I am competent. This comes in to play in a getting to that dream of a PEV. In the meantime, though I have built many a "Heathkit" type electrical or electronic contraption, the only "kit eBikes" I have entertained have been those designed with all the major components completed but sometimes requiring minor drilling or tapping alteration to fit one of my bikes but no fine brazing or welding.Electric Bikes (eBikes)
Back in the 1970s and 1980s there were designs to marry motorcycle batteries with electric motors to power a bicycle. I remember sending off a few dollars for detailed construction designs only to realize that even though I was working in a medical equipment custom shop with access to lathes, milling machines, and other necessary equipment, my chances of creating a reliable ebike weren't good. Past experience in shop class and with my father's huge old electric welder weren't up to the task of fine welding & brazing work required to get a premium electric motor attached effectively to a bicycle frame. Most motors of the day had originally been designed for aircraft use or for golf carts, thus were pretty heavy for the 200-500W output required to effectively provide supplementary power for an electric bike.More recently, circa 2001-2002, before both of my kids reached middle school and high school and had activities all the time, I did get serious about electric bicycles which many call "ebikes". During this time, I agonized over kits versus manufactured bicycles with integrated electric motors. In late 2001 Currie Cycles was having a blowout sale just prior to introducing their new 2002 models. Our family had just moved from the West Coast to Central NC and I felt some job security here so I purchased a 2001 Currie Folding bicycle, the eFolder model, and a short time later a 2001 Currie Mountain eBike at over 50% off from a California mail order bicycle dealer! These were still expensive bikes, at least for me, at about $475 and $550 respectively! Each had decent components, a fancy term for individual parts on the bikes like the shifters and wheels, etc. Both of these had excellent reviews at the time and especially the eFolder seemed perfect for commuting where part of the commute might be on an intercity bus.
Production ebikes
The Currie Cycle Company was founded by a former Aerospace executive who brought along many technical staff who saw promise in good quality and affordable ebikes. Initial sales were promising in California, Oregon, Washington State and Vancouver BC, but very weak elsewhere in the US and Canada and the company expanded as though sales would take off. The strong dollar and some parts problems with key components like the early motor and controls didn't help! Each of the ebikes I had purchased was a version of a Currie Cycles line being discontinued while major cost reductions were made in the product line to increase sales. Currie Cycles and other ebike companies struggled to stay alive after GW Bush was elected and states quickly dismantled "non-strategic" energy programs such as tax breaks for ebikes and other incentives that had cropped up at the end of the Clinton administration and had spurred ebike sales. Also the Currie eFolder was discontinued at the time in favor of a larger wheel folding ebike.In return for my ever increasing need for space in our newly constructed garage at the time, I got rid of most of my old bikes and many parts from bikes and other hobbies and started bike/bus commuting to work from Chapel Hill to RTP, NC.
Ups and down with ebikes
I did get my better half interested in riding the eFolder while I would pull a kids bike trailer behind the Currie Mountain ebike with our younger daughter (then 5) and any stuff to haul to the nearby park which was a hilly back road trip of a few miles. The older daughter (then 10) would ride her (non-motorized) bike and beg for her own motor!After about a year and a half each ebike developed a really maddening, and dangerous, problem: the ebikes sometimes wouldn't turn off when the thumb control was returned to "zero speed". Also one of the battery pack power switches wouldn't turn off either, so the battery pack switch was not serving as the essential emergency off switch. After a couple of rides where the ebikes turned into bucking broncos attempting to stop them, I made many calls to the company. This resulted in warranty replacement of a new motor for each ebike, but that didn't fix the problem. Further calls went unanswered as Currie Cycles was just barely surviving. What I didn't know then is that there had been a cost-cutting effort just before shipping out the last of the 2001 bikes. The cost cutting is obvious in a few areas such as the common steel seat mount on the Currie ebikes we own rather than the all aluminum alloy posts pictured in the ads. Less obvious is the electric thumb controller which is usually a very simple and reliable part and the last thing I suspected as a problem.
At the time there was no local help available to repair or tune these eBikes so we retired the Currie eFolder for a few years, and I reluctantly disconnected the battery pack from the nice Currie Mountain ebike and it became a standard 21 speed road bicycle for me to pull the kids trailer. Further details on our ebikes and their history is on another web page.
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Teen driver pushes family to PEV!
Back to 2010 and our eldest daughter, then 17, was clamoring for use of a car more often. With the economy still slowly recovering from the economic woes of 2008-2009, we are on one income since the school district went through a wave of cuts where my spouse's position was eliminated. Now we just can't see that any decent used car would be affordable and it would cut into the savings for the college funds. Not to mention the huge increase in insurance if we get a 3rd standard vehicle. Some ways around this:I have really begun addressing #1 after we found out that even the most basic small EV, mainly those that are legally rated as Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEV), with a decent ride start at over $6000 used! For less than 1/7 of that price we can upgrade all the eBikes and get at least one more used one. In April 2010, I got a 3rd ebike when a local pawn shop owner offered a Giant LaFree Lite ebike for sale. The seller accepted less than 1/2 of the advertised price and with only another $100 worth of parts this $1000 list ebike is back on the road again. This 2005 year ebike NiMH battery pack has held up for the past 6 months. Replacement battery packs are over $450, but thankfully a Pacific NW firm has spare parts and sold me an empty Giant battery box so I can attach a new external battery pack to this and the other ebikes. To make an extra battery pack, I've obtained a Nilar NiMH battery pack sort of like a small Prius battery pack for ebikes.
I designed a simple interface system for all these bikes which is depicted above. I intentionally purchased all with 24V motor and controllers, so the two rack mounted battery packs, both "SLA" lead-acid and NiMH, are interchangeable among all the eBikes. [PS - W4CHL is my FCC amateur radio callsign.] Unfortunately the NiMH battery from Nilar began leaking and ceased functioning in 2Q2013. Only in mid 2013 have affordable alternatives to "gel cell"/SLA batteries become available. A set of Lithium batteries, the LiFePO4 variety, built by Clean Republic in North Dakota are now in the same size as a 12v8ah SLA battery with a second set ordered through ebay when the Clean Republic turned to auctions for basic battery sales. These SLA replacement batteries are also encased in a bamboo container with built-in thermal cutoffs but no Battery Management System (BMS) found in much more expensive Lithium technology battery packs. I am testing the Bamboo LiFePO4 batteries in the older Currie ebikes with Kollmorgan replacement motors and the newly acquired Powabyke Shopper.
Hybrid Electric Car
Yes, our family owns a Prius, a 2002 model from the second year of production in the US! Our 2nd vehicle is now a hybrid Mercury Mariner. As noted above, a hybrid electric car had been a dream since grad school days when I worked on power electronics subsystems. One of the dreams come true for so many mechanical engineers in the 1980s was to marry a hybrid vehicle control system with small gas or diesel engines and an electric drive train. As noted above, this core design has been used successfully for almost a century in locomotives and large earth moving equipment. We bought the Prius in 2003, which is a step forward in energy efficiency and minimizing ecological harm from driving a car. Again, the thought of a third car, hybrid or not, still pushed us toward another alternative. Later, when researching replacement for our aging Toyota station wagon, we purchased a hybrid Mercury Mariner in early 2011. So both of our family cars are now hybrids.
Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEV)
The Neighborhood Electric Vehicle is attractive for many reasons. So far, every one I've seen, especially those for sale here in Central NC ride like very fancy golf carts. Some, like the Zenn LEV which I almost bought from a fellow in nearby Greensboro are production quality exterior, lights, and controls. But the road handling and braking give away their golf cart heritage and after Julie drove this one she agrees, this style of typical NEV on a golf cart chassis isn't suitable as a "second car".First Dream PEV: BugE
Extreme BugE Tour
Several regional BugE owners have theirs for sale, many are selling so that they can go back and build another one! There is a Maryland BugE owner who is planning to ride his souped up BugE cross-country towing a solar recharging station trailer. Man, am I envious and eager to see this PEV road show when it comes through North Carolina!Update 3Q2013
Our garage now has 4 26"/700c ebikes plus a folding 20" rim ebike as detailed here. Some have minor repairs or battery replacements required; 3 are currently ridden at least once a month; one is ridden at least a couple times a week! The PEV that we finally found is made in nearby Durham, NC. We have on order a 2013 model Organic Transit ELFSee the new wikispace we created and dedicate to the ELF and other Big Fairing Equipped Recumbent (BFER) velomobiles: http://bfer-velo.wikispaces.com
Our "EDee" pictured, arrived a month prior to Earth Day 2014 and has been my primary around the Triangle vehicle since.
Update: Goal for Earth Day 2015 was met!
Have a PEV (or two) and production highway ready EV that are used often and are available for display and demonstration any day, not just Earth Day!Goal for Earth Day 2016: ??
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